Samsung TX100 Hands On

The Samsung TX100 is the latest variation to hit the emerging tablet / hybrid market. Launched at CES, along with the Samsung ZX310 MacBook Air rival, it has a screen that hinges like a normal laptop but once flat it can be slid down over the keyboard turning into a tablet. It's a very neat trick that is certainly one of the more elegant ways of combining these two types of device.

In terms of specs, it's a netbook with a twist. There's an Intel Atom CPU inside but RAM is double what you'd normally expect at 2GB, while 32GB or 64GB SSDs are your storage options. The 1.366 x 768 pixel screen is also quite a high resolution for a 10.1in display.

A three second boot time was also quoted, which sounds quite impressive for such a small machine running Windows 7. Availble in Q2 of this year, it will set you back £599, which doesn't sound too bad.

However, while the concept is quite cool, the execution of the hinge seems quite slick, and the styling themes are nice, it doesn't quite seem to hold up on initial impression.

The chassis is quite chunky and the screen looks decidedly lost with the massive bezel around it. The screen quality also looks fairly ropey with viewing angles being the biggest culprit.

Most worrying, though, is that we were told we couldn't actually handle the device ourselves as someone had come along and bent the hinge backwards and snapped off the screen on one of the display samples. Clearly this was someone being overly aggressive but nonetheless there is perhaps mild cause for concern. We of course will hold back on any such judgement until we get one in for review, though.